Supreme Monarch

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"My name is Xelen Cornal, I am the vice guild leader of Winged city's Merchant Guild, pleased to make your acquaintance."

"Likewise, you can call me Lix, this here is Lilith." 

Tyler responded to the lady's introduction by doing the same while patting Nadine on her head as he introduced her.

"I am aware, the Guild Leader spoke fondly of your first meeting. I was also the one in charge of getting everything sorted out with the last shipment you provided us."

"I see."

"Before we get down to business though, is there anything else we can offer you, please feel free to ask. We're aware you just returned from a long trip so please don't hold back."

"No we're fi— Alright then, please do bring some more sweats for my partner oner here, and If you can get her some ice tea along with that, that would be swell."

Tyler was just about to decline her offer when he suddenly noticed that Nadine was done eating and was just staring coldly at the vice guild leader, which seems to be making her uncomfortable as her professional smile turned into an awkward one at some point in time.

"That can be done. I-Is there anything we can offer you?"

"Me, huh... Any cold beverage will be fine."

"I'll have someone bring you our finest beverage then. And the sweets and drink for your partner of course."

As soon as his request was meet, Nadine went back to eating even though Tyler couldn't understand how she could eat the large bowl of sweats herself. Perhaps the glutton knows as Kylyra had rubbed off on her the wrong way. Well, whatever, he decided to just ignore her and went down to business after taking a sip of his cold beverage as not to be rude, although it was surprisingly quite good 

"Then let's get down to business."

"Please do, it has only been a few days since we learned that you left the city with a group of Hunters but the guild leader was confident that you'll bring us something interesting this week, he even made a bet on that. I wonder if he was right."

Ignoring the fact that bets were being placed on him, Tyler proceeded to answer her question.

"I don't know about interesting but, I have around two tonnes of gold and gold ore to sell."

"You have gold?"

"Yes... Is that a problem?"

"Hmm, I'm sure this is a stupid question but did you illegally raid a mine? Please don't be afraid to tell us if that's the case. Although we can't buy the gold ourselves, as a VIP Merchant, we'll provide you with the various viable options you can take."

Seeing the lady he had imagined as a calm and collected office lady wave her hands in panic as she tried to assure him that the guild would do their best to protect him even if he had committed a crime. Tyler chuckled lightly and continued.

"Please calm down, I did not raid any occupied mine."

While riding a mine already owned by the Zorak family or a particular noble was illegal and not common. There had been a few incidents in the past of this happening and it had lead to strict laws against such actions being created and set in place. Along with the monitoring of the distributions of the various ores produced by the Zorak families mine.

While this meant it was almost impossible to trade the ore produced by the mines in a region. It also meant that one could trade such ores in a different region that did not contain the said ores or minerals.

"During our exploration trip, we stumbled on an unexplored mine and as I understand it, there is something called pioneers rights, I'm I correct?"

"Yes, that is true. As I recall, the guild leader was called for a reason that seems to involve talks on the survey and exploration of a new mine. Wait, could that be the same mine you're talking about."

"I see... It seems my former companions have already reported the mine to the Hunter guild so please do out your mind at ease."

"I see, the guide leader was quite surprised when he got the news so suddenly but it appears it had something to do with you. Anyway, let's get back on topic, how much gold are you able to trade with us this evening?"

"Around two tonnes."

"Alright, so two tonnes huh— WAIT Did you just say two tonnes?"

"I did, yes."

"You only traveled with a group of five and was only gone less than a week. So how were you able to mine over a tonne of gold in just a few days in an unexplored mine where you'll also give to face the monsters that reside there?"

"Well, we were lucky enough to stumble upon a large concentration of gold veins so there's that."

"You stumbled upon the gold."

"Literally."

"Huh..."

The pretty office lady looked dishevel for some reason but Tyler only chuckled and did not speak further on that. He had only said what the party of five had settled on and would not further complicate matters by adding any new information or allow her to ask any further questions.

"So, is the guild unable to buy such amount of gold."

"Huh, no we can... However, we will be unable to pay you your complete remuneration right away as we would have to use the services of the bank. Pardon me but do you have an account in the Blackwing bank, Mr. Lix?"

"No."

"I see... Would you be willing to open an account? The guild would handle everything on your behalf, this would make our future transactions a lot easier."

"Sure, feel free to do just that. However, I would require half of the payment in cash as that belongs to the Hunting party I escorted."

"That should be manageable, we'll prepare the coins before noon tomorrow."

"Alright."

"That should also be enough time to open the account and get all the necessary documents as long as we go through the proper channels."

"I see... I'll eagerly await that then."

"Thank you very much for doing your business with us."

"My pleasure."

"I'll get the paperwork ready immediately, please hold on one moment."

"No problem."

Xelen quickly got up and bowed to him before hurriedly leaving the room and returning only a few minutes later with parchment in hand as she wrote some minor details on it and gave it to Tyler to look over and sign.

Tyler confirmed the details of the agreement and nodded. He signed as Lix and then returned the parchment to Xelen. She then looked it over for only a brief moment before casting a spell and the parchment was split in two. No, it wasn't cut in half but was magically copied. He copied parchment was then given to Tyler.

"Well then Mr. Lix, we'll be expecting you tomorrow."

"Alright."

Saying that Tyler stood up and handed a small storage box over to Xelen as she had also stood up and after receiving the box, she bowed politely at him as he left. 

After leaving the Merchant's guild building, Tyler and Nadine drove their carriage to a different inn to spend the night as he hadn't received his payment for the gold yet and could not yet visit the Runic's Weapon Shop to claim his order.

This inn was still close to the central plaza but was a way better structure and environment than the Merryside inn. It has been recommended by Xelen and would even provide a 20% discount to VIP Merchants, how could he pass on such a deal.

Having parked his carriage at the back where the inn's stables were located and paid for his mount to be taken care of, Tyler paid for a large room for the both of them to spend the night.

Since he didn't require much sleep, he spent most of the night practicing his mana control and getting used to his magic sense by constantly shifting its range and adjusting its intensity. He would only passively use around 25 percent of the power of the skill but when he increased it past 70 percent, he found it hard to control.

Mostly because he would then be able to see magically without his eyes. Almost like some kind of juiced-up chameleon. It was a different vision than his normal eyesight, a strange way to see as he could even see through the walls at the entire inn and could clearly see what all the guests were doing.

However, this didn't seem like a good thing as he almost always lost track of himself while he tried to focus on something else. It was a scary feeling that would immediately terrify him enough that he would have to immediately cancel the skill.

Doing this time and. time again felt like some kind of self-imposed torture. However, the occasional sight he saw in the other rooms made him giggle silently. It was just a way he chose to overcome the fear of being lost in himself but if one observed him now, they would assume he was some kind of pervert.

By the time the sun was at a rise, he had already gotten used to the skill and could now use it at 100 percent without losing himself but Tyler still kept it running passively at 25 percent. It was just the basic form of magic sense so even running it at 100 percent would not change much.

He only did this as a way to control his Mana properly and not damage his Mana body further while trying to manage the corruption of his right hand as no matter how many times he used his healing spell on it, his arms didn't seem to get any better and it was now getting harder to use.

Aside from the occasional surge of pain, the negative corruption had not affected his motor functions until now. Luckily it was only his left hand and he could still use it for now. Putting the thought aside, Tyler got back to what he was doing until he was done.

Having finished his morning preparations, Tyler decided to use a scroll for Anti-divination before then using another scroll to contact Albert who then report to him the situation in the castle and the information they had gotten from Carn the surviving member of the so-called Numbers organization.

Tyler also informed him of their current situation and the adjustment he had made to his plans as he may not be able to return to the castle at the time he had originally specified. When he was done, he quickly donned his hood before heading out of the Duval inn. 

Just like the last time, Tyler chose to leave his carriage in the inn and after paying again for them to look after it. While the people in the city may have already gotten us to see it, it was still better not to announce to everyone where he was headed. That was probably the reason why the Merchant Guild had been aware of his comings and goings.

After leaving the Duval inn, they quickly boarded a private carriage and headed straight to the Royal borough. They had a few more hours till they would have to be at the merchant guild or the restaurant with Unrivaled so Tyler planned on making good use of the time.

He had gotten in a lot of trouble due to his shortcomings when it came to his knowledge and experience in magic and since he was still unavailable to enter the library, he would have to make do with the magic research institute.

Since that was the only place in the city that deals with magic, and magic items he would have to borrow their resources. But first, he would have to join the institute. Taking a look at the space within his storage ring, he saw the white unopened envelope that had been given to him by the Merchant Guild Leader.

The envelope had his seal clearly engraved on it. This was none other than the recommendation letter for entering the Zorak Magic research institute.